Soleio Cuervo

What's not to "like" about Soleio Cuervo? As one of the key developers for Facebook, the most influential social media juggernaut of the past five years, we can credit him for making "like" a universal expression of social media appreciation. While Mark Zuckerberg will always be the true face (yep, we said it) of Facebook, Soleio Cuervo is one of the techno-magicians behind the scenes who keeps the engine running smoothly and constantly evolving. Sure, people might be slightly annoyed at the continual changes to the Facebook platform, but Cuervo really wants us all to believe that he has our best interests in mind.

Appeal

As one of the first 10 people to ever join Facebook, Soleio Cuervo has been watching from his front row seat as a parade of attractive (and not-so-attractive) women have made their way onto the social networking platform. Working for Facebook undoubtedly brings with it the opportunity for even the geekiest of men to date, given the status (no pun intended) and wealth of such a position. While his job might sound tech-heavy (and it is), there's little that's geeky or socially awkward about Cuervo. In fact, we'd be willing to bet that he's the life of the Facebook party. After all, this is a guy with a first-rate understanding of how people interact and who has managed to fulfill their need for instant appreciation with the click of a "Like" button. With over 9,200 current subscribers to his Facebook account, Cuervo is admired by many, but his regular profile pictures of himself and (by all accounts) his child make it clear to the ladies out there that he's probably not about to take any of his online friendships into the real world of romance. Sorry, ladies. Cuervo is a communications expert and budding family man, with nothing more to share except his technological wisdom and the crafty status updates that go along with his online existence.

Success

A past graduate of Duke University with a background in musical composition, Soleio Cuervo eventually chose to create social media music instead. It was the right choice, as he's now a vital part of the lucrative Facebook enterprise, which no doubt pays his bills very handsomely. For that he deserves a strong measure of appreciation. So what makes Cuervo so good at what he does? It's probably his expert precision at recognizing both the immediate essentials that Facebook needs on a short-term basis and the long-term fundamentals that are necessary for growth. Everything he creates has an instant purpose and a future implication. Inspired by everything from 1980s video games to solitary moments in the library, Cuervo also often turns to airports as metaphors for how he wishes to maximize a user's experience, whether they have only a few minutes for Facebook or hours at a time. As a result, Facebook has gone far beyond a glorified photo album and become a global village of interactivity, where status updates, comments and likes are part of our silent but overwhelmingly verbal streams of daily consciousness.

Soleio Cuervo Biography

From the very beginning of his life, Soleio Cuervo knew that he wanted to bring people together through communication. He also realized early on that he had a gift for sharing status updates -- er, for storytelling -- from his desire to create stories for his younger brother, an inkling that usually placed him by himself in his family's backyard, where he would find his best inspiration.

As he grew older, Soleio Cuervo followed his gift for storytelling into the world of musical creation. Already a regular in bands, he enrolled at Duke University, where he studied musical composition and subsequently stumbled into technology. His transition was inspired by his need to build a website for his band. Through that experience, he replaced creating music with creating websites, and after his graduation from Duke, he followed this new career path through and formed his own web development company in 2003.

Soleio Cuervo joins Facebook

While working away at his company, Soleio Cuervo attracted the attention of Facebook in 2005, during its early stages. An employee with the budding social media platform (before anyone new what "social media" meant) took a strong liking to the designer's work, and after a positive interview at the end of the year, he was hired to join the design team. Through his friendships with Marcel Laverdet and Kang-Xing Jin, he also became one of the first 10 people to create a Facebook profile.

Soleio Cuervo creates the "Like" button

In his Facebook role as an "unknown developer" (as he likes to call it) and as part of the development team -- a job that brings with it much trial and error -- he initially had his hand in several key milestones with the company, including the launch of video calling, groups and motion between 2007 and 2008. From there, he suggested the idea of a "like" button on the site to instantly allow users to convey their appreciation for posts and links.

Together with team members Jared Morgenstern, Jonathan Pines and Leah Pearlman, they made the "Like" button a reality in 2009 before expanding it further (with the help of Tom Whitnah) to apply to individual comments and beyond. An instant hit in the Facebook world, the "Like" button has since made its way onto over 2.5 million websites across the internet airwaves, marking a new milestone in Facebook's dominance and giving Soleio Cuervo his biggest defining moment at Facebook so far.